This has bee an emotional week. Sometimes life can be so hurtful. It is hard to see our children suffer and to lead them to the right attitude, especially when we would prefer to just punch someone in the nose. One of the only things I have found to say to the children in these hard places is that the beginning is not the end. God has an amazing way of taking bad starts and turning them into beautiful victories.This would be trite if it weren't so true.
Homeschooling mothers often find themselves discouraged with the outcome of their homeschools. We dedicate our lives to something we have no real control over. We also have to remember that just because something doesn't look to be turning out the way we planned, all is not lost. The beginning is not the end. Graduating a child from our homeschool often seems like the end of something when really it is the beginning. Graduations are not times for judgements. Now we must wait and trust.
Yesterday I was upset. I told one of my older sons two things. I think they go hand in hand. I told him I wanted to punch someone in the nose. I told him the beginning is not the end.
Later that evening my youngest, Alex, came to me and said, "I liked when you said you wanted to punch that guy in the nose." I will have to teach Alex the rest of the formula on another sad day, but for now he knows that it is fun to have a crazy, menopausal mom on your side.
I like that: "The beginning is not the end." It feels Narnian. I think I'll file it away and use it someday...
ReplyDeleteThanks, Cindy. Not only is your statement "The beginning is not the end" true, I've also found "The end is rarely where I think it is" to be genuinely true as well.
ReplyDeleteMy son, who prior to his senior year, probably only read a handful of books for pleasure - that is, without them having been assigned by me, and I graduated him with a distinct feeling of having failed him and failed in accomplishing even my most modest hsing goal of having students who loved reading. Less than a year later he tells me of voluntarily going to an old used bookstore in downtown Birmingham and buying, with his own money, 3 very old books - devotionals from the late 1800's and early 1900's. He also reported about a book they are using in class that the students are not required to buy (but can simply borrow). He decided to buy it because he "never knows when he might want to refer back to the book...it is a great book".
What I thought was the end turned out to be the beginning.
I really needed this today. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteShelly
Thank you for this timely encouragement, Cindy.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reminding me to exercise patience and trust God when things don't *look* like they are turning out well. I feel this way often with one of my children, especially. I needed that.
ReplyDeletei can't tell you how helpful this post was and timely too.
ReplyDeletewe're blundering through the humbling 'parents-of-multiple-teens years', and at the same time, it's exam week. if that doesn't feel like judgment day all by itself, i think i'd better not think yet of graduation. :) as a result, i've been a little discouraged over the last couple of days... but your words are life. it's not the end, God is still at work. yes. i must remember that.
wanted to make sure you knew, i'm glad to have read this today.
:)